Brave Blossoms Team Announced Ahead of Scotland Match
Japan Head Coach Jamie Joseph has announced the Brave Blossoms Team to take on Scotland at BT Murrayfield on Saturday November 20, in the final match of the Lipovitan D Tour 2021 to Europe. This will be the first time for the two sides to meet following their final pool match at Rugby World Cup 2019 in Yokohama.
The Brave Blossoms will be captained by Pieter Labuschagne who returns to the starting line-up after being rested last weekend against Portugal. Shogo Nakano, who scored on his debut against Portugal receives his second test cap after being named again at outside-centre, while Shinnosuke Kakinaga returns to the matchday 23 for the first time since 2016, being named as reserve prop.
Japan Head Coach Jamie Joseph commented:
“The team is really looking forward to the test match on Saturday. We’ve had a good week in terms of our preparation and have enjoyed being back in Edinburgh. Scotland have really improved since we last played them at the World Cup. They’ve played a lot of test matches, with two six nations and some very strong performance in the lead up to this weekend.
“Their players who were quite young during the World Cup are now senior members of their team and they have changed their game a lot. They’re quite keen to run the ball, which is the way forward.
“We’re expecting a big contest in the loose forwards, where Scotland have shown a lot of improvement. Their backrow are strong in defence and at the breakdown, and are very good at jackaling and slowing the ball down. We’ll have to be very accurate at the breakdown, but we have an experienced backrow in Leitch, Lappies and Himeno, so it’s going to be a big part of the match.”
| No. | Name | Team | cm | kg | D.O.B | Caps |
| 1 | Craig MILLAR | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 186 | 116 | 1990/10/29 | 5 |
| 2 | Atsushi SAKATE | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 180 | 104 | 1993/06/21 | 26 |
| 3 | Asaeli Ai VALU | Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 187 | 115 | 1989/05/07 | 19 |
| 4 | Jack CORNELSEN | Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 195 | 110 | 1994/10/13 | 5 |
| 5 | James MOORE | NTTCommunications ShiningArcs TOKYO-BAY URAYASU | 195 | 110 | 1993/06/11 | 12 |
| 6 | Michael LEITCH | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | 189 | 113 | 1988/10/07 | 71 |
| 7 | Pieter LABUSCHAGNE (c) | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | 189 | 106 | 1989/01/11 | 12 |
| 8 | Kazuki HIMENO | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | 187 | 112 | 1994/07/27 | 21 |
| 9 | Yutaka NAGARE | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 166 | 75 | 1992/09/04 | 26 |
| 10 | Rikiya MATSUDA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 181 | 92 | 1994/05/03 | 28 |
| 11 | Siosaia FIFITA | KINTETSU LINERS | 187 | 105 | 1998/12/20 | 5 |
| 12 | Ryoto NAKAMURA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 181 | 92 | 1991/06/03 | 29 |
| 13 | Shogo NAKANO | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 186 | 100 | 1997/06/11 | 1 |
| 14 | Kotaro MATSUSHIMA | ASM Clermont Auvergne | 178 | 88 | 1993/02/26 | 43 |
| 15 | Ryohei YAMANAKA | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | 188 | 100 | 1988/06/22 | 21 |
| 16 | Kosuke HORIKOSHI | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 175 | 100 | 1995/06/02 | 4 |
| 17 | Keita INAGAKI | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 186 | 116 | 1990/06/02 | 38 |
| 18 | Shinnosuke KAKINAGA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 180 | 115 | 1991/12/19 | 9 |
| 19 | Ben GUNTER | Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 195 | 120 | 1997/10/24 | 2 |
| 20 | Tevita TATAFU | SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 183 | 124 | 1996/01/02 | 8 |
| 21 | Naoto SAITO | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 165 | 73 | 1997/08/26 | 5 |
| 22 | Yu TAMURA | YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES | 181 | 92 | 1989/01/09 | 67 |
| 23 | Dylan RILEY | Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 187 | 102 | 1997/05/02 | 3 |